A datastore group is a container that aggregates one or more replication-enabled datastores. The datastore groups are created by SRM and cannot be manually altered. A replication-enabled datastore is one whose LUN has a replication schedule enabled at the array.
The following diagram shows the multi-datastore datastore and single-datastore datastore groups:
A datastore group will contain only a single datastore if that datastore doesn't store files of VMs from other datastores. See the single datastore group conceptual diagram.
A datastore group can also contain more than one datastore. SRM aggregates multiple datastores into a single group if they have VMs whose files are distributed onto these datastores. For example, if VM-A has two VMDKs, each placed on Datastore-A and Datastore-B, then both these datastores become part of the same datastore group.
These datastore groups further aid in the creation of protection groups.